School lunch prepping

Recently I received a very nice mail from a busy mom of three asking me how I find the time to give my kids healthy and fresh food on a daily basis.

I must say it is all in the prepping and stocking up on the right supplies such as canned corn and chickpeas, rice and quinoa and some fruit and veggies such as cucumbers, bananas, carrots, apples….

This will gain you a lot of time. I have to admit that the fact that I really like to cook helps too but I am sure you can do it too. Believe me I am always busy: for work (more and more in the evening hours), for Must Be Yummie and with my 2 kids. Top that with some Pilates and a healthy social life and you quickly see that I don’t spend every free minute in my kitchen. Sounds familiar?

Let me tell you a little about how I prepare for school (and work) lunches, snacks and breakfasts.

Take half a day now and gain a lot of time later. Do this together with your kids, let them help, they love it.

Start with stocking up on quinoa patties– plain with just some red onion in the mix -and make a whole lot of them to freeze for later use. With some vegetables such as cherry tomatoes, a corn and chickpea salad or cucumber and carrot fries (just cut the veggies like fries ) this will be a wholesome and healthy school lunch.

While we are at it let me tell you what else the kids like for lunch. I must admit if I leave them the choice they’d choose Nutella or peanut butter over and over again. Fortunately I have been able to serve them other things they also liked: a simple sandwich with meat or cheese, a pasta or rice salad with radishes, corn and cucumber, a caprese salad, a fruit salad with granola, zucchini pancakes and the above mentioned quinoa patties.

In the past I have tried to give them hard boiled eggs but that wasn’t a success because they ‘smell bad’ and spring rolls– they just love to eat this at home – but they became too moist to eat in the lunch box.

The kids get to bring one piece of fruit a day to school as a morning snack and one afternoon treat. This varies between cookies, nuts, some veggies or a granola bar. I sometimes give them homemade cookies (they love gingerbread cookies), edamame beans, sunflower seeds or even homemade popcorn(without sugar or salt). Variation is the key!

Sometimes I even throw in a little treat in their lunchbox. My boy loves these raw coconut cashew bars (although we prefer them frozen), my girls just gets a piece of very dark chocolate.

Just make sure you have some of these homemade goodies at hand and preparing varied lunch and snack boxes won’t be a problem.